The Politics of Time and Youth in Brand India: Bargaining with Capital

158 Pages·2013·3.268 MB·English

by  Jyotsna Kapur

The Politics of Time and
Youth in Brand India
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The Politics of Time and
Youth in Brand India
Bargaining with Capital
Jyotsna Kapur
Anthem Press
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Copyright © Jyotsna Kapur 2013
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kapur, Jyotsna.
The politics of time and youth in brand India : bargaining with
capital / Jyotsna Kapur.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-85728-109-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN
0-85728-109-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. India–Social conditions–21st century. 2. Youth–India. 3.
Branding (Marketing)–India. 4. Neoliberalism–India. I. Title.
HC435.3.K363 2013
306.30954–dc23
2013032093
ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 109 8 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 0 85728 109 7 (Hbk)
Cover photo © Mike Covell 2010
This title is also available as an ebook.
For time flows on, and if it did not it would be a poor look-out for those who have no golden
tables to sit at. Methods wear out, stimuli fail. New problems loom up and demand new
techniques. Reality alters; to represent it the means of representation must alter too. Nothing
arises from nothing; the new springs from the old, but that is just what makes it new.
—Bertolt Brecht
If we are unable to build, and build in time, a socialist alternative worthy of the name, what
capitalism now promises us is only a future of barbarism. And since the possibility of the
destruction of our world itself cannot be ruled out, it could well be a future of no future at
all. […] Yet, nothing is inevitable in human affairs until it happens. In the final analysis it
is how we struggle and fight back that will decide our future. We can still make our future
our own way, build it as a society of freedom and equality and a truly rich human life for us
all – for that is what socialism is about.
—Randhir Singh
[…] the world has long since dreamed of something of which it needs only to become
conscious for it to possess it in reality. […] our task is not to draw a sharp mental line
between past and future, but to complete the thought of the past. […] mankind will not begin
any new work, but will consciously bring about the completion of its old work.
—Karl Marx
Why fear, if in our desire for dawn we too are swallowed whole by this dark night? There
will be some people, at least, who will live to see the bright morning.
—Jagmohan Joshi

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction After Me the Flood 1
Chapter 1 Brand India’s Biggest Sale: The Cultural Politics
and Political Economy of India’s “Global Generation” 21
Chapter 2 Arrested Development and the Making
of a Neoliberal State 49
Chapter 3 For Some Dreams a Lifetime is Not Enough:
The Rasa Aesthetic and the Everyday in
Neoliberalism 73
Chapter 4 An “Arranged Love” Marriage: India’s Neoliberal
Turn and the Bollywood Wedding Culture Industry 93
Chapter 5 Ek Haseenah Thi (There Once Was a Maiden):
The Vanishing Middle Class and Other
Neoliberal Thrills 107
Conclusion 121
Notes 127
References 133
Index 145

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been a long time in the making and many people have shared in
its journey. I wish to thank Beryl Langer, Sue Ferguson, Alan Sears, Elizabeth
Chin, Robbie Lieberman, Robin Andersen, Toby Miller, Aarti Wani, Nandini
Chandra, Samina Misra, Keith Wagner, Deborah Tudor and Eileen Meehan
for their critical engagement and help in shaping this project. I must also
thank my students for listening, challenging, and putting up with what must
have appeared to be an obsession with space, time, cinema and capitalism.
Their generosity remained undiminished in these days of imposed austerity
from the top. Finally, my union, the SIUC Faculty Association, provided
perspective, humor and a place to understand and challenge neoliberalism
and its consequences for our young people.
Then there are people with whom one goes back a long way, who have so
helped shape my political and personal life that it would be impossible to isolate
my own ideas from those developed with them. Professor Randhir Singh has
remained my inspiration, including for this work. Even now, more than three
decades since I sat in his classes on political theory at Delhi University, I draw
upon the passion and clarity with which he made us see that another world
was possible. Chuck Kleinhans, Vrinda Grover, Amar Kanwar, Savia Veigas,
Myron Periera, O. P. Bakshi, Barry John and Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar
will find themselves in these pages. It was just one long conversation with Dilip
Simeon, but he made me see the centrality of the politics of time and helped
bring this book to an end.
As always, Nilim and Suhaila put up, with their usual humor and
patience, with a mother who frequently lost track of time. Our home rings
with laughter over forgotten errands and dates, including sometimes even
the children’s ages. Perhaps, writing is a way to forget the invariable passing
of time. I often thought of my father, an academic himself, telling my
brother and me that teachers may not have a lot of money, but they had
lots of time. And my parents knew how to make that time happy – filling
our childhood with their comrades, laughter and adults who either spoke to
us seriously or not at all. So, thank you Narinder Singh and Satinder Kapur
x THE POLITICS OF TIME AND YOUTH IN BRAND INDIA
for that very honest childhood. And thanks to Ankur, Ajinder, Depinder,
Mini, Satnam, Sumi and Sanjam, who make coming home still just as
delightful. Mary and Dick Schuler, despite living far away, remain a
constant presence. Mike Covell shared my life and, as in everything else,
helped separate the fluff from the substance. It is just as much fun being at
home with him as it is on the picket line.
A Fulbright grant as well as a National Endowment for the Humanities
summer stipend earned me the time to dedicate to this volume. Chapter
4 was first published in Communication, Culture & Critique (vol. 2, no. 2,
pp. 221–33, 2009); Chapter 5 was published in Visual Anthropology (vol. 22,
no. 2/3, p 155–66, 2009). Tye Wilson’s help with reproducing the images
in this book and Suhaila Meera’s research assistance is much appreciated.
I also wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to Tej P. S. Sood, Rob Reddick
and Brian Stone at Anthem Press for their patience and encouragement.
Finally, this book was vastly improved by the careful reading of the
copyeditor, Meredith Ramey.